"I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to borrow more money. The city is rapidly reaching its debt-service limit."
For Street, the first $296 million NTI bond issue, later supplemented with $65 million to spur redevelopment in neighborhood commercial corridors, became the centerpiece in an effort to attract private- sector investment and attack generations of blight and abandonment in residential neighborhoods.
Nutter says he wants to increase the production of affordable housing, in part by changing the terms of the successful 10-year tax-abatement program and directing 10 percent of the tax savings to the Housing Trust Fund, which supports new housing for low-and moderate-income residents.
He also wants to shorten the abatement in neighborhoods with strong real-estate markets and increase the abatement to 15 years in neighborhoods that have weak private investment.
Nutter says he also wants to carry through on an unrealized pledge of NTI to move vacant property to a city land bank and on to new owners far faster than can be done now.
"We have an increase in the homeless population because we aren't investing enough in transitional housing and low- and moderate-income housing," Nutter said. "I want to work on getting the private real-estate market energized around the development of more low- and moderate-income housing."
Restoring civic pride
We need our mayor to do more than pave the streets and balance the budget.
We need him to tell us the truth, to build our confidence, sometimes express our grief, and yes, inspire us.
Nutter can learn good and bad lessons from his predecessors about this.
While Mayor Street can be an effective public speaker, he lacks an intuitive sense of communication and has never grasped the importance of the public-relations side of the job.
That's one reason why a recent Daily News Keystone poll found 73 percent of voters believe the city is on the wrong track.
Rendell earned a reputation as a master salesman and cheerleader for the city, but there was more to it than pep talks at ribbon cuttings.
He made tough, honest speeches about the city's problems and created images that projected change and optimism - including memorable photos of the mayor scrubbing a bathroom floor at a City Hall cleanup and leaping with kids into a city swimming pool that was opening on time for a change.
Former press secretary Kevin Feeley said good public relations won't cover up bad governing, but they matter.
"We did these symbolic things, like the City Hall cleanup, that said there would be a new way of doing business," Feeley said. "And they helped create the public spirit that allowed the substantive work to get done."
"Michael Nutter has to find a style that's suited to his personality," said Paul Levy, director of the Center City District. "We're a city that's easily fragmented, and we need a mayor who's candid with us about our challenges but appeals to the best in us. We want to see our mayor out there, in the press, on TV, representing the city."
The lesson for Nutter: A mayor can't just walk the walk. He has to talk the talk, too. *
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